


Cleansed

by Zarius



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Death Star, Duelling, F/M, Love Confessions, Rage, Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey Palpatine, Romance, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21875599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius
Summary: It was here, today, within the storm, with the rage of the ocean around them, where Rey would make her stance perfectly clear.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	Cleansed

It was here, today, within the storm, with the rage of the ocean around them, where Rey would make her stance perfectly clear.

They had come together within the Emperor’s chambers aboard the derelict remains of what had been a formidable battle station. He had come to deny her the way forward, he held it in his hand, and he crushed it, refusing to give in to her demands.

She had seen a side to herself so possessed, laced with the impure scent of evil, and it was enough to set her down a path of savagery against the man of stature.

A man who promised her stature if they came together.

But with stature came the savagery of the dark side, something she had struggled to defy even with her teachings.

The answer as to why had been made all too clear to her by this point in time, Kylo had told her.

She was family to the very evil her friends depended on her to vanquish.

She was an heir to the empire.

The demand for the way finder Kylo would destroy was but a mask of good intention, to bring about the desired result, and she would give sway to the impulsive instincts of her rage once her buttons were pushed.

Kylo destroyed the device, and over the edge she toppled.

She launched at him with her light sabre, and he matched her ferocity with his own. 

They pushed one another out of the station, into the storm, into the cold, their blades clashing, theirs was a conflict of emotion, little defined their purpose more than the desire to best the other, with one out to destroy, the other to control.

She would make her stance abundantly clear.

With her, there would be no control.

Not even Finn’s cries fell deaf upon her ears.

And then Kylo paused, as if hearing an urgent cry ring out, her light sabre struck true and in a fleeting moment the rage peaked, and all she could know was the savagery of the dark side.  
And then it all subsided.

She saw her victim laid before her, mortally wounded, bleeding out. 

What kind of being was she?

She knew, but the hope for her lay in the knowledge that she was afraid.

Not afraid of her bloodline, or her power, or her dark impulses, but afraid for him.

Afraid she would lose him because of a moment all so fleeting, the kind of moments that had shaped Anakin and his grandson into the men they became.

She looked upon the man and saw not Kylo, a monster.

She saw Ben.

She placed one hand firmly on the open wound of his stomach, she closed her eyes, she felt her strength ever so briefly sap, but grew braver about it knowing the purpose that drove her deeds.

It had an effect, Ben ceased bleeding out, drenched in the rain, he looked up at her, a look of confusion, but also one of consideration.

Rey could sense there was so much he could not fully understand in regards to the way she truly felt. 

He wondered how had it all come to this.

And was there any way out?

“I was going to take your hand” Rey said, openly weeping as she confessed her intent all those months ago, when he last offered her a path so uncertain, but with him would have felt so clear.

Clear, but not clean.

She wanted him clean.

“I wanted to take Ben’s hand” she concluded.

Perhaps that was the purpose of the storm, of the tide crashing around them.

Perhaps it was cleansing them both.


End file.
